Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)
subsection 198
198. Mumia: i.e. a type of spice which is hot and dry in the third degree; this is how it is obtained in Babylonia and in the country of
p.587
the pagans and Saracens, i.e. when one of their lords is being buried, a great deal of myrrh, balsam, and other expensive and aromatic spices is put around him in the coffin; when the human body and these other things decompose, they turn into a fine powder; there is nothing in the world that smells better than it; when the coffin is exhumed, this fine powder is found amongst the bones; it has the constraining virtue, and the ability to stop a flow of blood; it serves well for people with haemoptysis, i.e. those who emit blood from the mouth, and also against the flux of menstruation. It serves well to inhale from this gum in the times of the bad, corrupt, air.